50th  Congress,  ) 
1st  Session.  ) 


SENATE. 


j  Mis.  Doc. 
(  No.  114. 


HEARING 


BEFORE  TWR 


COMMITTEE  ON  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE, 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 


,  ^PRIL  2,  1888. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTINO  OFFICE. 

1888. 


I 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


Monday,  April  2,  1888 — 10  o'clock  a.  m. 

The  committee  met  to  hear  arguments  in  behalf  of  woman  suffrage 
from  the  delegates  to  the  International  Woman's  Council. 

Present,  Senators  Cockrell  (chairman),  Brown,  Blair,  Palmer,  Chase, 
and  Bowen. 


STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON. 

Mrs.  Stanton.  Flouorable  gentlemen,  for  many  successive  years  a 
class  of  women,  fully  comprehending  the  dignity  of  citizenship  in  a  Re- 
public, have  appeared  before  committees  of  the  House  and  tbe  Senate, 
praying  that  the  national  Constitution  shouhl  be  so  interpreted  or 
amended  as  to  secure  to  the  women  of  the  nation  all  the  rights,  privi- 
leges,  and  immunities  of  citizens. 

During  this  discussion  the  basic  principles  of  republican  government, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  national  Constitution,  have  been 
thoroughly  studied  by  us,  until  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  leaders  in 
the  suffrage  movement  fully  understand  the  Constitutiou,  and  that  to 
them  its  provisions  for  the  largest  libert^^  are  as  familiar  as  the  spelling 
book.  Their  arguments  already  gild  the  page  of  history  and  are  highly 
creditable,  for  their  research  and  eloquence,  to  the  women  of  this  gen- 
eration. 

Our  champions,  too,  in  the  halls  of  Congress  and  legislative  assem- 
blies in  half  the  States  of  the  Union  have  based  their  arguments  on 
these  immortal  documents,  which  together  form  the  Magna  Charta  of 
human  liberties.  Logical  arguments  against  woman's  enfranchisement 
can  not  be  based  on  the  principles  of  our  Government,  for  they  all  alike 
proclaim  "equal  rights  to  all"  without  regard  to  race,  color,  sex,  or 
previous  conditions  of  servitude.  Individual  sovereignty,  individual 
conscience  and  judgment,  are  the  central  truths  of  a  republic,  from 
which  radiate  the  guiding  principles  that  lighten  our  path  through  all 
the  complications  of  government. 

The  Constitution  as  it  is,  in  spirit  and  letter,  is  broad  enough  to  pro- 
tect the  personal  and  property  rights  of  all  citizens  under  our  Hag.  By 
every  principle  of  fair  interpretation  we  need  no  amendment,  no  new 
definitions  of  the  terms  "people,"  "persons,"  "citizens,"  no  additional 
power  conferred  on  Congress  to  enable  this  body  to  establish  a  republi- 
can form  of  government  in  every  State  of  the  Union ;  and  whenever  our 
rulers  are  ready  to  make  the  experiment  they  will  see  that  they  already 
possess  all  the  constitutional  power  they  need  to  act,  and  that  the  right 
of  suffrage  is,  and  always  was,  the  inalienable  right  of  every  citizen  under 
government. 

3 


4 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


Let  me  rehearse  a  few  of  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  to  show 
your  power  and  our  riglits  as  citizens  of  a  republic : 

We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  estab- 
lish justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote 
the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity, 
do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America. 

Articie  I,  section  2 : 

The  House  of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of  members  chosen  every  second 
year  by  the  people  of  the  Ki'v«^ral  States,  and  the  electors  in  each  State  shall  have  the 
qualifications  requisite  for  electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State  legis- 
lature. 

Section  4: 

The  times,  places,  and  manner  of  holding  elections  for  Senators  and  Representatives 
shall  be  prescribed  in  each  State  by  the  legislature  thereof ;  but  the  Congress  may  at 
any  time  by  lavs^  make  or  alter  such  regulations,  except  as  to  the  places  of  choosing 
Senators.  (See  Elliot's  Debates,  vol.  3,  p.  366— remarks  of  Mr.  Madison— Story's 
Commentaries,  sees.  623,  626,  578.) 

Section  8.  The  Congress  shall  have  power — 

To  establish  a  uniform  mode  of  naturalization,  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be 
necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other 
powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any 
department  or  officer  thereof. 

Section  9.  Ko  bill  of  attainder  or  ex  post  facto  law  shall  be  passed. 

No  title  of  nobility  shall  be  granted  by  the  United  States. 

No  State  shall  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law 
impairing  the  obligations  of  contracts^  or  grant  any  title  of  nobility. 
(See  Cummings  vs.  The  State  of  Missouri,  Wallace  Eep.,  287,  and  ex 
parte  Garland,  same  volume.) 

Article  IV,  section  2 : 

The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citi- 
zens in  the  several  States. 

The  elective  franchise  is  one  of  the  privileges  secured  by  this  sec- , 
tion.    (See  Corfieldm  Coryell,  4  Washington  Circuit  Court  Reps.,  380, 
cited  and  approved  in  Durham  vs.  Lamphere,  3  Gray ;  Mass.  Kep.,  276, 
and  Bennett  vs.  Boggs,  Baldwin  Rep.,  p.  72,  Circuit  Court  U.  S.) 

Section  4 : 

The  United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form 
of  government. 

How  can  that  form  of  government  be  republican  when  one-half  the 
people  are  forever  deprived  of  all  participation  in  its  affairs  ? 
Article  YI : 

This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  which  shall  be  made  in  pur- 
suance thereof,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  o?  the  land;  and  the  judges  in  every  State 
shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything  in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding. 

XIV  amendment: 

All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein  they  reside. 

No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or  immu- 
nities of  the  United  Slates. 

Even  the  preamble  of  the  Constitution  is  an  argument  for  self-govern- 
ment— "We,  the  people."  You  recognize  women  as  people,  for  you  count 
us  in  the  basis  of  representation.  Half  our  Congressmen  hold  their  seats 
to-day  as  representatives  of  women.  We  help  to  swell  the  figures  by 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


5 


which  you  are  here,  and  top  many  of  you,  alas!  are  only  figurative  repre- 
sentatives, paying  little  heed  to  our  rights  as  citizens. 

"No  bill  of  attainder  shall  be  passed."  No  title  of  nobility  granted." 
So  says  the  Constitution;  and  yet  you  have  passed  bills  of  attainder  in 
every  State  of  the  Union  making  sex  a  disqualification  for  citizenship. 
You  have  granted  titles  of  nobility  to  every  male  voter,  making  all  men 
rulers,  governors,  sovereigns,  over  all  women. 

"  The  United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every  State  in  the  Union  a 
republican  form  of  government."  And  yet  we  have  not  a  republican 
form  of  government  in  a  single  State  in  the  Union.  One-half  the  people 
have  never  consented  to  a  single  law  under  which  they  live.  They  have 
had  rulers  placed  over  them  in  whom  they  have  no  choice.  They  are 
taxed  without  representation,  tried  in  our  courts  by  men,  for  tlie  viola- 
tion of  laws  made  by  men,  with  no  appeal  except  to  men,  and  for  crimes 
over  which  men  should  have  no  jurisdiction  whatever,  while  honorable 
gentlemen  all — these,  and  many  more  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
are  violated  every  day  that  woman  remains  disfranchised.  You  are 
very  conscientious  in  not  using  the  power  you  already  possess  to  crown 
us  with  all  the  rights  of  citizens. 

There  is  no  significance  in  the  argument  that  the  fiithers  did  not  in- 
tend to  include  women  in  these  provisions.  The  contrary  supposition 
is  quite  as  fair  as  in  spirit,  and,  better,  they  have  done  so.  "  We,  the 
people"  are  three  plain  English  words  that  do  not  admit  of  any  subtle, 
symbolical  meaning,  and  when  you  count  us  in  the  basis  of  represen- 
tation, as  I  said,  you  admit  that  we  are  people.  Again,  as  women  voted 
all  along  from  the  earliest  days  in  England,  and  many  voted  and  held 
important  offices  in  colonial  days  in  our  country,  the  fact  must  have 
been  familiar  to  the  fathers. 

Article  4,  section  2,  says  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled 
to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States.  Yet, 
if  citizens  from  Washington  Territor^^,  Wyoming,  or  Kansas,  where 
women  vote,  pass  into  any  other  State  or  Territory  fhey  lose  the  right 
to  vote,  the  fundamental  right  of  citizenship. 

We  have  abundant  guaranties  in  the  Constitution  to  secure  to  woman 
all  her  rights.  All  we  need  is  that  some  far-seeing  statesman  or  chief 
justice  may  arise  who  shall  fairly  interpret  the  constitutional  law  we 
already  possess ;  a  man  who,  like  Lord  Mansfield  in  the  Somerset  case, 
shall  declare  that,  according  to  the  genius  of  our  institutions,  no  disfran- 
chised citizen  can  breathe  on  American  soil.  That  simple  declaration 
of  Lord  Mansfield  struck  every  fetter  from  the  slaves  in  every  land 
and  isle  of  the  sea  under  the  shadow  of  the  English  throne. 

The  chief  justice  of  Massachusetts  abohshed  slavery  in  that  State  by 
a  similar  declaration.  The  fact  that  the  pronoun  he"  is  used  in  various 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  does  not  decide  that  man  alone  is  referred 
to,  for  in  the  whole  criminal  code  the  pronouns  are  "he,"  "his,"  "him." 
Surely  if  women  can  be  made  to  pay  all  the  penalties  of  violated  law  as 
"he,"  she  might  be  permitted  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  a  citizen  as 
"  he."   If  a  woman  can  hang  as  "he,"  she  might  vote  as  "he." 

I  would  quote  a  few  opinions  of  distinguished  statesmen  and  publi- 
cists, to  show  what  our  ablest  men  think  as  to  whert?  the  principles  of 
our  Government  legitimately  lead  us  in  deciding  the  inalienable  rights 
of  citizens. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  asserts  that  to  secure  the  inalien- 
able rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hapi)iness,  governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  "deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed.^ 


6 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


BeDjamin  Franklin  said: 

Liberty  consists  in  having  an  actual  share  in  the  appointment  of  those  wko  firame 
the  laws  and  who  are  the  guardians  of  every  man's  life,  property,  and  peace. 

That  they  who  have  no  voice  nor  vote  in  the  electing  of  representatives  do  not  en- 
joy liberty,  but  are  absolutely  enslaved  to  those  who  have  votes  and  to  their  repre- 
sentatives. 

James  Madison  said : 

Under  every  view  of  the  subject,  it  seems  indispensable  that  the  mass  of  the  citizens 
should  not  be  without  a  voice  in  making  the  laws  which  they  are  to  obey,  and  in 
choosing  the  magistrates  who  are  to  administer  them. 

Samuel  Adams  said : 

Representation  and  legislation,  as  well  as  taxation,  are  inseparable,  according  to 
the  spirit  of  our  Constitution  and  of  all  others  that  are  free. 

Again,  be  said : 

No  man  can  be  justly  taxed  by,  or  bound  in  conscience  to  obey,  any  law  to  which 
he  has  not  given  his  consent  in  person  or  by  his  representative. 

And  again : 

No  man  can  take  another's  property  from  him  without  his  consent.  This  is  the  law 
of  nature,  and  a  violation  of  it  is  the  same  thing  whether  it  is  done  by  one  man,  who 
is  called  a  king,  or  by  live  hundred  of  another  denomination. 

James  Otis,  in  speaking  of  tbe  rights  of  the  colonists  as  descendants 
of  Englishmen,  said  they  were  not  to  be  cheated  out  of  them  by  any 
phantom  of  virtual  representation,  or  any  other  fiction  of  law  or  politics." 

Again : 

No  such  phrase  as  virtual  representation  is  known  in  law  or  constitution.  It  is 
altogether  a  subtlety  and  illusion,  wholly  unfounded  and  absurd. 

Among  all  the  rights  and  privileges  appertaining  unto  us,  that  of  having  a  share 
in  the  legislation,  and  being  governed  by  such  laws  as  we  ourselves  shall  cause,  is 
the  most  fundamental  and  essential  as  well  as  the  most  advantageous  and  beneficial. 

The  judicious  Hooker  wrote: 

Agreeable  to  the  same  just  privileges  of  natural  equity  is  that  maxim  of  the  En- 
glish constitution,  that  ''law,  to  bind  all,  must  be  assented  to  hy  all,"  and  there  can 
be  no  legal  appearance  of  assent  without  some  degree  of  representation. 

In  1790,  Condorcet,  in  his  treatise  on  the  admission  of  women  to  the 
rights  of  citizenship  in  France,  says : 

Now,  the  rights  of  men  result  solely  from  the  fact  that  they  are  rational  beings, 
susceptible  of  acquiring  moral  ideas  and  reasoning  on  those  ideas.  Women,  having 
the  same  qualities,  have  the  same  equal  rights.  Either  no  one  individual  of  the  hu- 
man kind  has  true  rights  or  all  have  the  same,  and  one  who  votes  against  the  right 
of  another,  whatever  be  that  other's  religion,  color,  or  ^ex,  from  that  moment  for- 
feits his  own. 

Mirabeau  condenses  the  whole  question  in  his  definition  that  a  rep- 
resentative body  should  be  a  miniature  of  the  whole  community." 

The  right  of  women  to  personal  representation  through  the  ballot 
seems  to  lue  unassailable  wherever  the  right  of  man  is  conceded  and 
exercised.  1  can  conceive  of  no  possible  abstract  justification  for  the 
exclusion  of  the  one  and  the  inclusion  6f  the  other. 

For  years  we  demanded  our  rights  under  the  Constitution  as  it  is, 
specifically  under  the  fourteenth  amendment.  .  Some  of  our  coadjutors 
tested  its  legality  by  exercising  the  right  of  sulfrage  in  their  respective 
States.  Their  cases  were  tried  in  the  Supreme  Court  and  decided 
against  them,  thus  practically  declaring  that  under  neither  State  nor 
national  constitutions  is  there  any  guaranty  for  the  protection  of  the 
political  rights  of  women,  and  their  civil  rights  have  also  been  denied 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


7 


by  both  the  State  aud  General  Governments.  A  woman  in  the  State 
of  Illinois  was  denied  the  right  to  practice  law,  and  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  to  which  she  carried  her  case,  confirmed  the  State's 
decision. 

Since  these  decisions  we  have  asked  for  a  sixteenth  amendment,  de- 
claring that  all  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  shall  apply  equally 
to  men  and  women. 

Although  we  have  had  these  hearings  eighteen  years  in  succession, 
and  all  the  minority  reports  of  our  champions,  from  General  Butler  of 
Massachusetts,  down  to  Senator  Blair,  of  [N'ew  Hampshire,  have  been 
able,  unanswerable  constitutional  arguments,  the  majority  reports  have 
studiously  avoided  logic,  common  sense  and  Constitution,  and  based 
their  objections  upon  the  most  trivial  popular  prejudices.  Lecky,  the 
historian,  has  well  said  the  success  of  a  movement  depends  much  less 
on  the  force  of  its  arguments,  or  upon  the  ability  of  its  advocates,  than 
the  predisposition  of  society  to  receive  it. 

Though  our  arguments  have  never  been  answered,  it  is  fair  to  sup- 
pose that  the  honorable  gentlemen  who  have  written  the  adverse  re- 
ports have  read  the  Constitution  which  they  have  sworn  to  support, 
and  are  fully  aware  that  the  weight  of  argument  rests  on  our  side. 
Hence  they  betake  themselves  to  the  world  of  speculation,  where  they 
can  manufacture  statistics  adapted  to  their  prejudices.  As  our  argu- 
ments are  never  answered,  it  is  evident  they  make  no  impression  on  our 
opponents,  as  each  committee  in  turn  rehearses  the  popular  objections, 
though  we  have  pointed  out  their  absurdity  as  often  as  they  are  offered. 

Instead  of  a  constitutional  argument  at"^this  time  I  will  review  a  few 
of  the  points  made  by  former  majority  committees,  suggesting  that  the 
gentlemen  to  report  on  this  hearing  will  try  to  strike  out  some  new  and 
more  worthy  trend  of  thought.  It  may  not  be  known  to  you  gentle- 
men that  all  these  reports  are  published  in  the  History  of  Woman  Suf- 
frage and  that  these  volumes  have  been  not  only  extensively  circulated 
in  this  country  and  placed  in  all  our  leading  public  libraries,  but  that 
they  are  also  circulated  in  foreign  lands  and  placed  in  all  the  old  uni- 
versities in  Great  Britain  aud  Europe. 

However  indifferent  our  statesmen  may  be  to  their  own  reputation 
their  wives  and  daughters  do  not  wish  them  to  make  fools  of  them- 
selves on  the  page  of  history.  I  never  glance  over  these  reports  that  I 
do  not  blush  for  my  countrymen.  My  only  consolation  is  that  the  able 
and  eloquent  minority  reports  do  in  a  measure  redeem  the  dignity  of 
these  committees  in  both  the  Senate  and  the  House.  In  view  of  such 
reports  as  the  majority  have  given  us  I  can  not  express  to  you,  gentle- 
men, the  humiliation  I  feel,  as  a  native-born  American  citizen^  much 
older,  probably,  than  any  member  on  the  committee,  that  after  half  a 
century  of  weary  waiting  and  watching,  educated,  refined  women  are 
still  compelled  to  beg  of  their  own  Saxon  fathers,  husbands,  brothers, 
and  sons,  for  those  civil  and  political  rights  so  freely  granted  to  every 
foreigner  who  lands  on  our  shores. 

While  I  possess  every  qualification  of  a  voter— age,  property,  educa- 
cation;  while  I  fully  appreciate  the  genius  of  republican  institutions, 
and  glory  in  the  success  of  our  triumphant  democracy;  while  traveling 
in  the  Old  World  my  proudest  boast  has  ever  been  "I  am  an  American 
citizen ; "  yet  to  my  pleadings  for  the  political  rights  of  women  you  turn 
a  deaf  ear,  and  hold  the  very  idea  of  woman's  enfranchisement  up  to 
scorn,  while  you  extend  the  right  hand  of  welcome  to  every  ignorant 
foreigner  . who  lands  on  our  shores,  who  has  no  idea  of  what  constitutes 
a  republic,  nor  of  the  duties  self-government  invokes;  yet  you  crown 


8 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


bim  with  the  rights  of  American  citizenship,  rights  for  which  your  own 
mothers,  wiv^es,  sisters,  and  daughters  plead  in  vain. 

Landing  in  New  York  one  week  ago,  1  saw  400  steerage  passengers 
leave  the  vessel.  Dull  eyed,  heavy -visaged,  stooping  with  huge  bur- 
dens and  the  oppressions  they  endured  in  the  Old  World,  they  stood  in 
painful  contrast  with  the  group  of  brilliant  women  on  their  way  to  the 
International  Council  just  held  here  in  Washington.  I  thought,  as  this 
long  line  passed  by,  of  the  speedy  transformation  the  genial  influences 
of  equality  would  effect  in  the  appearance  of  these  men,  of  the  new  dig- 
nity they  would  acquire,  with  a  voice  in  the  laws  under  which  they  live, 
and  1  rejoiced  for  them;  but  bitter  reflections  filled  my  mind  when  I 
thought  these  men  are  the  future  rulers  of  our  daughters;  these  will  in- 
terpret the  civil  and  criminal  codes  by  which  they  will  be  governed; 
these  will  be  our  future  j  udges  and  jurors  to  try  young  girls  in  our  courts 
for  the  crime  of  infanticide,  for  trial  by  a  jury  of  her  peers  has  never  yet 
in  the  history  of  the  world  been  vouchsafed  to  woman.  Here  is  a  right 
so  ancient  that  it  is  difiicult  to  trace  its  origin  in  history,  a  right  so 
sacred  that  the  humblest  criminal  may  choose  his  juror.  But,  alas  for 
the  daughters  of  the  people,  their  j  udges,  advocates,  jurors,  must  be  men, 
and  for  them  there  is  no  appeal.  But  this  is  only  one  wrong  among 
many  inevitable  in  a  disfranchised  class.  It  is  impossible  for  you,  gentle- 
men, to  appreciate  the  humiliations  women  sufter  at  every  turn. 

My  joy  in  reaching  my  native  land  and  meeting  dear  friends  and  family 
once  more  was  shadowed  by  that  vision  on  the  wharf  and  by  the  knowl- 
edge that  by  the  thousands  still  they  come,  and  from  lands  where  woman, 
as  a  mere  beast  of  burden,  is  infinitely  more  degraded  than  by  any  possi- 
bility she  can  be  here.  Do  you  wonder,  in  view  of  what  the  character 
of  our  future  law-makers  may  be,  that  we  are  filled  with  apprehensions 
of  coming  evil,  and  that  we  feel  that  there  is  no  time  to  be  lost,  if  our 
Saxon  fathers  ever  propose  to  throw  around  us  the  j^rotecting  power  of 
law  and  Constitution  ? 

The  next  generation  of  women  will  not  argue  with  their  rulers  as 
patiently  as  we  have  done,  and  to  so  little  purpose  for  half  a  century. 
You  have  now  the  power  to  settle  this  quest  on  by  moral  influences,  by 
wise  legislation.  But,  if  you  can  not  be  aroused  to  its  serious  considera- 
tion, like  every  other  stej)  in  progress,  it  will  eventually  be  settled  by 
violence.  The  wild  enthusiasm  of  woman  can  be  used  for  evil  as  well 
as  good.  To-day,  you  have  the  power  to  guide  and  direct  it  into  chan- 
nels of  true  patriotism,  but  in  future,  with  all  the  elements  of  discontent 
now  gathering  from  foreign  lands,  you  will  have  the  scenes  of  the 
French  Commune  repeated  in  our  land.  What  women,  exasperated 
with  a  sense  of  injustice,  have  done,  in  dire  extremities  in  tlie  nations 
of  the  Old  World,  they  will  do  here. 

The  justice  and  moderation  of  our  demands  have  always  seemed  to 
me  so  apparent  that  the  bare  statement  should  have  sufficed  long  ago. 
The  protracted  struggle  through  which  we  have  passed,  and  our  labors 
not  yet  crowned  with  success,  seems  to  me  sometimes  like  a  painful 
dream  in  which  one  strives  to  run  and  yet  stands  still,  incapable  alike 
of  escaping  or  meeting  the  impending  danger.  I  would  not  pain  your 
ears  with  a  rehearsal  of  the  hopes  ofttimes  deferred  and  shadowed  with 
fear,  of  the  brightest  anticipations  again  and  again  disappointed.  I 
will  leave  it  to  your  imagination  to  picture  to  yourselves  how  you 
would  feel  if  you  had  had  a  case  in  court,  a  bill  before  some  legislative 
body,  or  a  political  aspiration,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  with  a  con- 
tinual succession  of  adv^erse  decisions,  while  law  and  common  justice 
were  wholly  on  your  side.    Such,  honorable  gentlemen,  is  our  case. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


9 


Every  point  of  constitutional  law  lias  been  argued  over  and  over,  not 
only  by  our  coadjutors,  but  by  some  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  nation. 
These  arguments  still  remain  unanswered. 

It  is  fair  to  suppose  that,  understanding  the  provisions  of  the  Consti- 
tution, you  know  that  women  being  persons  born  and  naturalized  in 
this  country  are  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  Sta  te  wherein 
they  reside,  and  that  ihey  have  the  same  inalienable  right  to  life,  lib- 
erty, and  happiness,  to  self  government  and  self  protection  that  each 
of  you  i^ossesses.  Like  you,  women  pay  taxes  and  the  pei  alty  of  their 
own  crimes.  If  they  commit  theft  or  murder  they  are  imi)risoned  and 
hung.  If  comj)elled  to  represent  themselves  on  the  gallows,  why  not 
at  the  polls?  Surely  the  latter  duty  could  be  much  more  gracefully 
discharged  than  the  former. 

In  looking  over  the  majority  reports  I  find  the  chief  subterfuge  of 
some  of  our  opponents  is  that  woman  would  be  a  dangerous  element  in 
politics. 

First.  They  fear  the  vicious  women,  as  it  is  supposed  that  +hey  would 
rally  a  mighty  multitude  and  all  go  to  the  polls,  drive  all  the  virtuous 
women  away,  completely  demoralize  the  men,  and  sap  the  foundations 
of  party  platforms  and  political  life.  The  women  of  the  French  revo- 
lution are  supposed  to  illustrate  what  this  class  would  do. 

Second.  They  fear  the  fashionable  women,  because  they  would  vote 
for  handsome  men,  make  their  padors  symposiums  for  the  discussion  of 
questions  of  political  economy,  sacrifice  their  country  to  personal  ambi- 
tion and  family  aggrandizement,  and  spend  so  much  time  in  the  galler- 
ies of  legislative  assemblies  as  to  distract  the  attention  of  statesmen 
from  the  great  work  of  government. 

Third.  They  fear  religious,  devout  women,  because  they  would 
destroy  the  secular  nature  of  our  Government  by  introducing  the  name 
of  God  into  the  Constitution,  and  establishing  religious  tests  for  polit- 
ical parties  and  platforms. 

Fourth.  They  fear  married  women,  because  they  would  vote  with 
their  husbands,  and  thus  merely  double  the  vote,  or  they  would  vote 
directly  opposite,  and  thus  destroy  the  family  relation,  which  in  either 
view  would  be  a  public  and  social  calamity. 

Fifth.  The  colored  women.  After  wasting  reams  of  paper  and  an 
immense  amount  of  brain  force  in  drawing  up  the  fourteenth  amend- 
ment expressly  to  keep  this  class  out  of  the  body  politic,  it  would  be 
most  aggravating,  after  twenty  years  of  safety,  to  find  them  citizens  of 
the  United  States  under  this  very  amendment. 

Though  I  believe  in  universal  suffrage,  yet  I  am  willing  you  should 
begin  the  experiment  of  woinanhood  suffrage  with  the  smallest  minority 
you  deem  sate,  so  that  by  enfranchising  some  women  you  overturn  the 
present  aristocracy  of  sex. 

Well,  gentlemen,  to  make  the  first  practical  step  for  you  as  easy  as 
possible,  why  not  exclude  .these  five  classes  for  the  present  and  begin 
your  experiment  "with  spinsters  and  widows"  who  are  householders. 
This  is  the  basis  on  which  England  extends  municipal  suflrage  to  women. 
You  have  the  power  to  extend  and  withhold  the  sufirage,  as  you 
choose;  -there  is  no  reason  why  you  should  begin  with  universil  suf- 
frage for  women.  We  can  not  ask  you  to  be  more  generous  to  us  than 
you  have  been  to  your  own  sex.  Men  at  one  time  voted  on  qualifica- 
tions of  property,  education,  color,  but  each  in  turn  were  abolished  in 
some  States,  and  in  some  States  still  remain,  except  color,  which  was 
abolished  for  men  by  the  fourteenth  amendment. 


10 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


Though  my  coadjutors  all  believe  iu  universal  suffrage,  yet  I  think 
we  should  be  willing  to  let  you  start  with  spinsters  and  widows  who 
are  householders.  Having  homes  of  their  own  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that 
tliev  are  iiulustrious,  common-sense  women,  neither  vicious,  fashionable, 
nor  jnnbitious  tor  fauiily  position,  women  who  lov^e  their  country  (having 
no  husbands  to  love)  better  than  themselves.  With  this  class,  you  es- 
cape all  danger  of  family  upheavals  on  the  one  side  and  doubling  the 
vote  on  the  other.  In  this  way,  by  admitting  some  women  into  jjolitical 
life,  we  overturn  the  aristocracy  of  sex. 

Do  you  realize,  gentlemen,  that  in  establishing  manhood  suffrage  you 
made  all  men  sovereigns  and  all  women  subjects'?  This,  the  most  odious 
form  of  aristocracy  that  the  world  ever  saw,  is  the  only  one  we  have; 
an  aristocracy  that  makes  all  men,  black  and  white,  foreign  and  native, 
lettered  and  unlettered,  washed  and  unwashed,  virtuous  and  vicious, 
the  rulers  of  refined,  educated,  native-born  women ;  an  aristocracy  that 
destroys  the  happiness  of  social  life,  exalting  the  son  above  the  mother 
who  bore  him,  engendering  an  insidious  contempt  for  woman  among  all 
classes  expressed  in  the  debates  on  tliis  question  at  every  fireside,  in 
the  halls  of  legislation,  in  our  laws  and  literature,  alike  in  poetry  and 
prose,  most  depressing  to  sensitive  women,  insulting  to  those  who  have 
a  proper  self-respect,  and  alike  exasperating  to  all. 

In  the  history  of  the  race  there  has  been  no  struggle  for  liberty  like 
this.  Whenever  the  interest  of  the  ruling  classes  has  induced  them  to 
confer  new  rights  on  a  subject  class  it  has  been  done  with  no  effort 
on  the  part  of  latter.  Neither  the  American  slave  nor  the  English 
laborer  demanded  the  right  of  suffrage.  It  was  given  in  both  cases  to 
strengthen  the  liberal  party.  The  philanthropy  of  the  few  may  have 
entered  into  those  reforms,  but  politicial  expediency  carried  both  meas- 
ures. Women,  on  the  contrary,  have  fought  their  own  battles;  and  in 
their  rebellion  against  existing  conditions  have  inaugurated  the  most 
fundamental  revolution  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  The  magnitude 
and  multiplicity  of  the  changes  involved  make  the  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  success  seem  almost  insurmountable. 

The  narrow  self-interest  of  all  classes  is  opposed  to  the  sovereignty 
of  woman.  The  rulers  in  the  state  are  not  willing  to  share  their  power 
with  a  class  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  themselves,  over  which  they  could 
never  hope  for  absolute  control,  and  whose  methods  of  government 
might  in  many  respects  differ  from  their  own.  The  anointed  leaders 
in  the  church  are  equally  hostile  to  freedom  for  a  sex  supposed  for  wise 
purposes  to  have  been  subordinated  by  divine  decree.  The  capitalist 
in  the  world  of  work  holds  the  key  to  the  trades  and  professions  and 
undermines  the  power  of  labor  unions  in  their  struggles  for  shorter 
hours  and  fairer  wages  by  substituting  the  cheap  labor  of  a  disfran- 
chised class  that  can  not  organize  its  forces,  thus  making  wife  and  sister 
rivals  of  husband  and  brother  in  the  industries,  to  the  detriment  of  both 
classes.    Of  the  autocrat  in  the  home,  John  Stuart  Mill  has  well  said : 

No  ordinary  mau  ia  willing  to  find  at  his  own  fireside  an  equal  in  the  person  he 
calls  wife. 

This  society  is  based  on  this  fourfold  bondage  of  woman,  making 
liberty  and  equality  for  her  antagonistic  to  every  organized  institution. 
Where,  then,  can  we  rest  the  lever  with  which  to  lift  one-half  of  human- 
ity from  these  depths  of  degradation,  but  on  that  columbiad  of  our 
])olitical  life — the  ballots — which  makes  every  citizen  who  holds  it  a  full- 
armed  monitor  [Ai)plause.] 

Miss  Anthony,  I  would  say  to  the  committee  that  Mrs.  Stanton 
stands  ready  to  answer  any  questions  you  may  choose  to  ask  her.  I 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


11 


see  Senator  Brown  has  come  in  ;  I  am  happy  to  see  him.    Has  he  any 
questions  to  ask  of  Mrs.  Stanton  ? 
Senator  Beown.  I  believe  I  have  no  questions  to  ask. 


STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  SCATCHERD. 

Miss  Anthony.  If  the  committee  have  no  questions  to  ask  Mrs. 
Stanton,  I  should  like  to  present  to  them  representatives  from  the  dif- 
ferent countries  of  the  old  world.  First,  I  will  introduce  Mrs.  Alice 
Scatcherd,  of  Leeds,  England.  She  is  here  to  represent  the  Edinburgh 
Women's  Suffrage  Society;  also  Yorkshire,  Darlington,  and  Southport 
Women's  Liberal  Associations,  the  parent  society  of  which  is  the  Wo- 
men's Liberal  Federation,  with  Mrs.  Gladstone  as  the  president. 

Mrs.  Scatcherd.  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen,  I  deem  it  a  great 
privilege  to  be  allowed  to  speak  before  this  committee  for  a  few  mo- 
ments. We  foreign  delegates  have  had  a  most  wonderful  experience 
during  the  past  week,  but  it  did  not  take  that  experience  to  tell  us  what 
we  already  knew  before,  that  the  women  of  this  great  Republic  have  in 
many  respects  advantages  over  the  women  of  the  Old  World.  We 
came  expecting  to  learn  much,  and  we  have,  indeed,  learned  much  from 
the  women  of  your  country.  But  on  the  other  hand  we  see  that  there 
are  some  respects  in  which  we  English  women,  at  any  rate,  have  the 
advantage  of  them,  and  I  think  that  is  notably  in  the  matter  of  voting 
at  municipal  and  local  elections. 

There  never  was  a  time  in  our  country,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
ascertain,  when  women  who  paid  the  same  rates  and  taxes  as  men  had 
not  the  same  local  vote.  That  has  been  our  right  from  time  immemorial ; 
and  whatever  extension  of  local  government  is  made  in  our  country,  no 
one  ever  dreams  of  depriving  those  women  rate-payers,  namely,  the 
widows  and  spinsters  who  pay  rates,  of  having  the  franchise.  In  the 
year  1835,  when  the  municipal  reform  act  was  brought  in,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  deprive  women  for  the  time  of  that  vote.  It  was  done 
more  from  carelessness  than  intention.  Various  localities  were  then 
turned  into  municipalities,  and  for  a  time  it  occurred  that  women  who 
had  voted  in  the  locality  were  deprived,  when  that  locality  was  turned 
into  a  town,  of  the  vote.  Directly  attention  was  called  to  this  matter 
it  was  remedied  at  once.  When  the  district  of  South wark  was  turned 
into  a  municipal  borough,  the  majority  of  the  householders  were  women, 
and  it  struck  our  legislators  as  absurd  to  give  only  to  a  minority  of  the 
householders  the  vote  in  local  matters. 

Women  also  vote  at  the  school-board  elections  with  us,  and  I  must 
say  that  they  do  use  their  vote  largely  and  well,  and  take  an  especial  in- 
terest in  these  elections.  We  have  not  found,  because  women  mix  freely 
with  men  on  those  occasions,  any  of  the  terrible  things  which  were  pre- 
dicted to  happen.  Women  sit  upon  the  school-boards  and  take  an  active 
part  in  the  education  of  our  country. 

But,  more  than  that,  we  women  also  have  a  vote  for  what  we  call  our 
poor-law  boards — our  boards  of  guardians — and  women  sit  upon  those 
boards.  And  here  let  me  say  that  our  men  are  beginning  to  realize 
that  they  can  not  settle  great  social  problems  without  calling  in  the 
help  of  women;  and  that  wherever  children,  the  aged,  the  sick,  the 
poor,  the  erring,  the  fallen,  and  the  weak  are  concerned,  there  is  woman's 
right  place.  (Applause.) 

It  has  often  been  said  that  women  would  not  vote  at  elections,  nor 
take  part  in  them  if  they  had  the  right  to  do  so.  My  experience  is  ex* 
S.  IUi$.  2  16 


12  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE- 

Hv  tiu.  ..nntrirv  Our  women  do  vote  in  quite  as  large  a  percentage 
actlN  the  ^^''^Vr^'rf  rploction  is  lost  in  any  ward  of  our  town  you 

botU  be  ^,<^"^^^!:;^"'  ^'^j;  ,^ere  granted  to  our  women  rate-payers-and 
ra^rUnS.  L^^U^^^favrr^^  ab^le  to  ta.e  care  of 

^rior^Ci^U^dXeras^ 

lature  and  n. al.es  ,ts  own  ^aw^  -b  -^^t^^^^^^^^  ,  Jp.^d 

Parliament;  and  tj^'^^f '  x,nt  only  the  women  owners 

rates,  who  wei;e  f  ■"/t^^lVt"  ^'^^^^^^^^^  there  are  six  hundred 

of  propem,  ot  aU  no^  that  were 

and  iorty  two.  Uave  vo^        happened,  but  I  believe  they  have 

"■^f  Til  1?  ve^.;^-freft  St  to  the  government  of  that  little  kingdom, 
''"w  ,r  ^v,  Irwe  not  to?our  ,>.^  franchise  yet,  the  women 

"^^i^^^^o^^       try,  and  tbat  they  take  a 
"g?eaUnterest,  a  very  acti^ve  interest^^m^^^^^^^^ 

country.  It  I  'if-L'^f^^i^^^i^^lyaaTpolitely  examined  by  a  woman  ex- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


13 


town  and  the  district  and  the  county  in  which  I  live.  Living,  as  I  do,  in 
the  heart  of  a  great  manufacturing  district,  and  looking  on  it  not  in  the 
mere  surface  light,  but  grasping  all  the  circumstances  that  affect  the 
district,  I  must  say  that  at  every  turn  I  am  met  with  the  conclusion  that 
the  franchise  is  necessary  for  women,  not  only  to  promote  those  social 
reforms  and  improvements  which  she  has  in  her  mind,  but  also  to  pro- 
tect such  interests  as  she  already  possesses. 

I  have  never  been  one  of  those  who  have  struggled  for  exact  equality 
between  men  and  women.  I  do  not  think,  gentlemen,  that  we  are  equal 
in  any  way;  rather  are  we  equivalent,  men  and  women,  to  each  other. 
Men  have  done  wonderful  things.  They  have  laid  the  material  founda- 
tions of  the  social  structure ;  and  as  I  come  across  in  the  grand  ships 
which  have  been  built,  as  I  travel  on  your  railways,  I  never  cease  to 
admire  the  foresight  and  the  ability,  the  thought  and  the  forethought 
which  you  have  evinced  ;  but  you  can  not  now  proceed  as  you  ought 
to  do  unless  you  take  into  council  the  women  of  your  country.  You 
can  not  build  the  superstructure  upon  the  foundations  which  you  have 
laid  unless  you  consult  women. 

Mrs.  Stanton  has  mentioned  many  of  the  social  points  on  which  we 
have  views,  and  we  long  to  lay  those  views  before  you  to  have  them 
put  in  practice,  and  1  do  hope  the  time  is  coming  when  good  men,  those 
men  who  think  seriously,  will  gradually  come  and  say  to  us,  what  do 
you  think  upon  these  social  problems"  ?  Will  you  come  and  will  you 
help  us  solve  them 

I  do  not  wish  to  take  up  any  more  of  your  time.  I  am  very  grateful, 
indeed,  for  having  been  allowed  to  speak  to  this  committee,  and  to  tes- 
tify here  before  all  these  American  women,  and  before  you  gentlemen, 
our  great  gratitude,  and  how  much  we  have  learned  in  your  country, 
and  how  our  thoughts  have  been  drawn  together  at  the  great  council 
which  has  just  been  held.  [Applause.] 


STATEMENT  OF  MES.  GROTH. 

Miss  Anthony.  Now  I  want  to  go  across  the  narrow  bit  of  water  and 
introduce  to  you  Mrs.  S.  Maglesson  Groth,  of  Norway. 

Mrs.  Groth.  Gentlemen,  I  have  seen  very  splendid  things  in  America. 
I  have  seen  evidences  of  your  friendship  and  of  your  independence.  I 
come  to  tell  you  that  a  law  has  been  passed  in  Norway  and  all  men  are 
in  favor  of  woman  suffrage  in  Norway,  and  it  has  been  very  highly  suc- 
cessful. [Applause.] 

STATEMENT  OF  MISS  TRYGG. 

Miss  Anthony.  Miss  Alii  Try gg,  of  Finland,  is  not  exactly  a  dele- 
gate, but  she  is  a  Finn.  The  delegate.  Baroness  Alexandra  Gripen- 
berg,  is  at  the  Eiggs  House,  and  has  not  been  able  to  attend  a  single 
meeting ;  but  Miss  Try  gg,  her  intimate  friend,  who  is  an  educator  from 
the  little  country  of  Finland,  is  here,  and  so  I  want  to  introduce  to  you 
Finland. 

Miss  Trygg.  Gentlemen,  I  do  not  know  English  very  well,  but  I  come 
to  speak  to  you  a  few  words  as  well  as  I  can.  If  I  could  speak  it  well 
I  should  have  very  much  to  tell  you.  I  am  a  daughter  of  Finland, 
which  is  united  with  Eussia,  and  you  know  what  that  means  so  far  as 
liberty  is  concerned.  I  can  toll  you  what  is  the  greatest  moment  in  my 
whole  life;  it  is  when  I  stand  here  uuder  this  a^iling  in  a  building 


14 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


where  laws  are  made  for  a  free  people,  but  your  trouble  is  they  are  now 
made  for  a  half  of  the  people  and  uot  made  for  the  whole  of  the  people. 
1  can  not  tell  you  how  much  I  enjoy  my  being  here  in  America.  I  hope 
1  sball  be  able  to  come  back  in  ten  years  to  the  half-century  jubilee, 
and  then  1  shall  see  all  the  women  in  this  great  country  represented, 
and  then  they  need  not  come  here  and  ask  you  any  more  to  give  these 
rights  lo  women.    1  hope  to  see  that  day.    [Applause.]    I  thank  you. 


STATEMENT  OF  MME.  BOGELOT. 

Miss  Anthony.  Now  I  want  to  introduce  to  you  Madame  Bogelot, 
of  Paris,  France. 

Madame  Bogelot  addressed  the  committee  in  French. 

Gentlemen  :  1  am  here  to  represent  the  women  of  France  who  are 
working  on  behalf  of  prisoners  of  their  own  sex.  We  feel  that  the  more 
oppressed  is  the  woman  by  her  own  failure  and  by  the  want  of  pity  in 
those  about  her,  so  much  the  more  does  she  need  the  help  and  strength 
of  all  good  women  to  save  her  from  despair.  We  feel  also  that  the  laws 
of  our  country  are  very  unjust  to  many  women,  and  that  until  women 
have  a  voice  in  the  making  of  laws  they  will  continue  to  be  so.  We 
feel  also  that  all  our  efforts  for  uplifting  women  are  crippled  by  the  in- 
ferior position  of  women  to  that  of  men  before  the  law. 

STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  CHANT. 

Miss  Anthony.  We  have  three  delegates  from  England,  but  I  am 
very  sorry  to  say  to  you  that  the  third  one  is  overcome  by  our  climate 
or  our  cordial  welcome  or  something,  and  she  is  not  able  to  be  here  this 
morning,  and  that  is  Mrs.  Dilke.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introduc- 
ing to  you  Mrs.  Laura  Ormiston  Chant,  of  London,  who  is  present  here 
with  us  by  authority  as  a  delegate  of  Edinburgh,  of  which  society  Mrs. 
Priscilla  Bright  McLaren  is  the  president.  Mrs.  McLaren,  as  you 
recognize  by  the  name,  is  the  sister  of  John  and  Jacob  Bright.  Mrs. 
Chant  also  represents  the  Glasgow  Women's  Suffrage  Society,  the 
British  Women's  Temperance  Society,  the  National  Vigilance  Associa- 
tion, as  well  as  two  or  three  others,  including  the  Women's  Peace  and 
International  Arbitration  Society. 

Mrs.  Chant.  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen:  It  is  a  great  thing, 
surely,  to  be  allowed,  as  an  English  woman,  to  stand  here  and  plead  in 
the  name  of  American  women  for  that  which  we  hope  American  women 
will  soon  enjoy.  I  should  like  to  remind  you  that  those  of  us  women 
who  are  striving  to  gain  the  suffrage  for  women  are  not  the  indifferent, 
the  vicious,  or  the  fashionable,  of  whom  Mrs.  Cady  Stanton  spoke,  but 
we  are  w  omen  of  all  countries  who  are  prominent  in  all  philanthropic 
work,  all  educational  work,  all  literary  work,  and  all  work  that  is  for 
the  uplitting  and  advancement  of  humanity  in  any  way.  There  are 
very  few  of  us  women— I  can  speak  for  Great  Britain  and  Ireland — who 
have  not  noble  ancestors  who  have  stood  prominently  forth  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  as  advocates  of  freedom  of  all  kinds,  and  we  think  it 
a  fitting  and  beautiful  thing  to-day  that  we,  their  daughters  and  grand- 
daughters and  great-granddaughters  should  be  standing  here,  some  of 
us  certainly,  under  the  roof  of  a  building  which  embodies  the  liberties 
of  as  great  and  magnificent  a  national  constitution  as  the  world  has 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


15 


yet  seen.  It  is  a  fitting  thing  that  we  should  be  aiiowed  tlie  honor  of 
standing  before  you  to-day,  echoing  faintly,  it  may  be,  the  voices  of 
those,  our  men,  who  have  gone  before  us,  who  sounded  the  first  clarion 
notes  of  liberty,  of  which  we  hope  we  are  giving  the  echoes. 

I  stand  here  as  the  great-grandniece  of  one  of  the  greatest  orators 
and  clearest  and  wisest  statesmen  that  Europe  has  known,  and  that  is 
Edmund  Burke  [applause].  It  seems  to  me  an  almost  overwhelming 
humility  that  I  should  be  able  to  echo  faintly  the  magnificent  impeach- 
ment that  he  made  against  Warren  Hastings,  in  our  House  of  Commons, 
on  behalf  of  the  oppressed  women  of  Hindostan,  in  this  my  passionate 
appeal  on  behalf  of  oppressed  women  all  over  the  world.  We  women 
feel  that  while  women  have  no  voice  whatever  in  making  the  laws,  the 
central  necessity  of  the  human  life  is  in  great  danger  of  being  taken 
away  from  them,  the  necessity  of  earning  bread  and  havingland  on  which 
to  live.  No  one  has  denied  to  women  the  right  of  burial,  and  in  that  one 
sad  necessity  of  human  life  they  stand  on  an  equal  footing  with  men ; 
but  I  see  in  our  England  that  while  women  have  no  recognized  voice  in 
making  law  by  helping  appoint  the  law-makers,  the  power  of  women  to 
earn  bread  and  possess  a  home  is  in  constant  danger,  and  is  being  les- 
sened more  and  more,  as  th3  increasing  electoral  right:;  of  men  place 
greater  differences  between  the  sexes.  Oh,  I  wish  you  could  hear  be- 
hind my  voice,  1  wish  you  could  feel  behind  my  heart  and  my  thought, 
the  agonies  and  sorrows  of  those  thousands  of  poor  and  oppressed  and 
downcast  women  in  our  England  who  come  to  your  shores  as  a  last  re- 
sort, to  find  that  which  the  Old  World  has  denied  them !  We  are  op- 
pressed in  our  country  by  centuries  of  feudalism  and  monarchism,  and 
you  are  not.  We  are  old ;  we  are  in  the  sunset  of  a  grand  past ;  and 
you  are  in  the  glorious  dawn  somewhere  near  the  morning  and  advanc- 
ing towards  a  day  of  which  the  world  has  never  known  she  equal  for  its 
splendor. 

Therefore  we  pray  to  you,  by  the  lessons  taught  by  ancient  Egypt, 
where  they  recognized  and  did  not  hesitate  to  nut  into  force  the  equality 
of  women,  by  ancient  Greece  where  women  obtained  an  educational 
height  that  they  have  not  yet  attained  anywhere  els3  so  iong  as  they 
were  not  the  women  of  the  family,  and  by  ancient  Eome,  where  women 
had  such  power  that  the  life  of  a  man  in  the  arena  might  be  dependent 
on  the  upturning  or  downturning  of  the  thumb  of  the  frivolous  or  the 
vicious  woman  in  the  amphitheater,  to  be  wiser  than  them  all,  and  free 
womanhood  from  the  artificial  disability  of  sex  in  national  life.  To-day 
the  women  who  are  laying  down  their  lives  for  the  good  of  their  coun- 
try in  temi:)erance,  in  puritj^  and  in  education,  aye,  in  politics,  too,  be- 
cause we  are  most  of  us  women  who  feel  that  what  religion  is  to  the 
individual,  the  duty  to  God  and  man,  that  politics  is  to  the  nation,  duty 
to  God  and  man  also  [applause] — we  ask  that  the  religion  of  the  nation 
shall  not  exclude  women  any  longer. 

When  I  saw  your  magnificent  churches  here  yesterday  opened  to  the 
voice  of  women  in  a  way  in  which  our  English  churches  are  not,  I  could 
only  hope  that  we  may  be  able  to  take  back  over  the  Atlantic  the  -ex- 
ample of  the  new  country  into  the  old  to  quicken  the  movement  there 
and  teach  the  great  lesson  that  offices  should  be  filled  by  those  whose 
gifts  render  them  fit  for  the  post,  irrespective  of  sex. 

In  the  enfranchisement  of  women  is  the  race  between  the  Old  World 
and  the  New.  We  possess  to-day  a  majority  in  our  English  House  of 
Commons  on  behalf  of  woman  sufirage,  and  we  have  never  possessed  that 
before ;  but  what  blocks  the  way  is  the  cause  of  that  oppressed  coun- 


16 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


try,  Ireland,  and  I,  for  one,  feel  that  I  would  ratber  that  Ireland  should 
continue  to  block  the  way  till  in  her  emancipation  from  centuries  of 
injustice  the  great  i)rinciple  of  freedom  for  all  without  respect  of  per- 
son, race,  or  sex  has  been  vindicated  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  by  grant- 
ing her  home  rule.  Here  is  the  old  mother  with  her  grand  past,  and 
the  daughter  with  her  magnificent  future.  If  you  win  this  race  we 
shall  bless  you,  and  you  will  see  not  only  England,  Scotland,  and  Ire- 
land, but  Kuvssia,  Germanj^,  Italy,  and  Spain  following  in  your  lead. 
Do  not  let  us  fail.  By  all  you  have  held  most  sacred  and  beautiful  in 
the  women  who  have  loved  you  and  made  life  possible  for  you — for 
their  sake  and  in  their  name,  I  do  entreat  you  no  longer  to  allow  one  of 
your  grandest  women  to  plead  for  over  half  a  century,  but  say  "  the 
l^ast  has  been  a  long  night  of  wrong,  the  day  has  come  and  the  hour  in 
which  justice  shall  conquer."  Open  your  arms  wide  now  and  take  into 
the  protection  of  the  law  the  womanhood  as  well  as  the  manhood  of 
your  country.  [Ai)plause.] 


STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  JULIA  WARD  HOWE 

Miss  Anthony.  Now,  gentlemen,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
to  you  the  woman  who  has  stood  at  the  head  of  literature  in  Boston, 
the  woman  who  twenty-five  years  ago  wrote  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Ixepublic,"  the  president  of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Women,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  of  Boston. 

Mrs.  Howe.  Gentlemen,  I  had  not  expected  to  speak  here  to-day, 
and  ray  heart  has  been  full  enough  with  the  words  of  others  that  have 
been  here  uttered  ;  but  a  single  word  will  enable  me  to  cast  in  my  voice 
with  theirs  with  all  the  emphasis  that  my  life  and  such  power  as  I  have 
given  it  will  enable  me  to  add. 

Gentlemen,  what  a  voice  you  have  hereto-day  for  universal  suffrage. 
Think  that  not  only  we  American  women,  your  own  kindred,  appear 
here,  and  you  know  what  they  represent,  but  these  foremost  women 
from  other  countries,  representing  not  only  the  native  intelligence  and 
character  of  those  countries,  but  deep  and  careful  study,  and  the  pre- 
cious experience  which  is  derived  from  earnest  labor  for  the  good  of 
society  and  for  the  elevation  of  the  race ;  and  think  that  between  them 
and  us,  who  are  for  suffrage,  there  is  entire  unanimity.  We  all  say  the 
same  words  ;  we  all  are  for  the  same  thing.  • 

I  have  never  had  the  honor  to  speak  in  this  Capitol  of  our  dear,  glorious 
country  before ;  but  in  my  adopted  State  of  Massachusetts,  the  aspect 
of  the  legislature  is  not  unfamiliar  to  me.  How  many  times,  with  my 
colleagues,  have  I  toiled  up  those  steps,  and  have  got  more  leaves  to 
withdraw"  than  it  is  worth  while  to  count  here,  but  each  one  of  those 
counts  behind  us :  and  as  the  difficulties  had  to  be  overcome,  as  the 
steps  that  had  to  be  taken  were  taken,  with  each  one  there  has  been 
one  cure  for  us  there,  and  so  we  all  pressed  onward  in  one  great  and 
fervent  hope,  which  is  a  deep  religious  hope,  and  which  I  am  sure  the 
oldest  and  most  honored  of  us  will  live  to  see  realized ;  and  as  we  speak 
not  only  together,  but  each  has  her  own  voice,  I  will  say  that  while  1 
desire  very  much  that  the  two  classes  mentioned  by  our  honored  chief, 
Mrs.  Stanton,  shall  be  enfranchised,  I  will  not  abate  one  jot  of  my  de- 
mand for  all  women  [applause] — not  that  I  love  spinsters  and  widows 
less,  but  that  I  love  all  woman  kind  more  [applause] 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


17 


STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  MERRICK. 

Miss  Anthony.  GentlenieD,  I  want  to  present  to  you  a  lady  whom  I 
see  sitting  bere.  I  remember  when  I  talked  to  Senator  Brown  a  couple 
of  years  ago  be  said  he  did  not  know  a  woman  in  the  South,  in  all  the 
Gulf  States,  who  wanted  to  vote,  and  especially  in  Georgia.  Kow,  1 
bring  you  up  a  woman  from  Louisiana  who  does  want  to  vote.  Sena- 
tors, Mrs.  Judge  Merrick,  of  New  Orleans. 

Senator  Brown.  With  great  deference,  I  think  you  state  it  a  little 
too  broadly.    I  said  the  number  was  not  very  large,  probably. 

Miss  Anthony.  But  I  want  to  show^  you  at  least  one.  Mrs.  Mer- 
rick is  the  widow  of  a  man  who  prior  to  the  war  was  chief-justice  of 
Louisiana,  and  she  is  a  woman  who  stands  at  the  liead  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  most  intelligent  and  cultivated  and  representative  women  of 
the  Gulf  States,  and  I  do  hope  that  our  Southern  members  of  Congress 
and  of  the  Senate  will  come  to  know  that  there  are  women  in  their 
midst  who  want  to  vote,  as  well  as  the  Northern  representatives,  who 
know  they  have  among  their  constituents  many  such  women. 

Mrs.  Merrick.  Honorable  gentlemen :  When  Miss  Anthony  says 
that  I  wish  to  vote,  she  says  the  truth.  If  any  one  asks  me  when  I  be- 
came a  convert,  I  will  say  that  I  believe  I  was  born  that  way.  I  have 
been  a  married  woman  for  forty  years,  and  1  have  eight  grandchildren, 
and  my  husband  and  my  two  sons  and  my  brother  indorse  everything 
tbat  I  do  on  this  question,  but  only  of  late  years.  It  has  taken  those 
forty  years  to  bring  them  to  my  position  that  I  had  in  tbe  beginning, 
for  I  always  believed  that  woman  was  an  equal  factor,  and  wben  she 
counts  in  the  church  and  wben  she  counts  in  the  family,  she  ought  also 
to  count  in  the  government. 

But  you  have  heard  this  thing  over  and  over.  It  is  not  asking  too 
much  that  when  a  woman  is  admitted  to  the  tax  list  she  should  also  be 
admitted  to  the  ballot.  W^hen  my  son  became  twenty-one  years  of  age 
we  were  in  the  North,  and  he  wanted  very  much  to  go  South  to  vote  for 
Cleveland.  His  father  was  unwilling  that  he  should,  but  I  used  my  in- 
fluence and  he  was  permitted  to  go.  When  I  took  leave  of  him  I  said, 
"  My  dear  son,  you  are  so  glad  you  are'  going  to  vote,  being  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  and  now  you  are  going  South  to  vote  for  the  first  time;  re- 
member that  your  mother  will  always  be  a  perpetual  minor  and  that  she 
feels  humiliated  and  mortified  on  that  account."  He  said,  "Mother,  I 
wish  you  could  vote."  I  said,  "  Well,  I  am  so  happy  in  having  so  young 
a  sou  express  such  a  wish  tbat  I  can  do  without  voting  for  a  while." 
[Laughter.]  But  when  Miss  Anthony  invited  me  to  come  here  I  was 
sick  and  not  able  to  come.  My  son  said,  "Although  you  are  a  woman's 
rights  woman  why  should  you  commit  suicide  by  going  to  Washington 
with  that  dreadful  cold?"  I  said,  ''My  son,  I  am  going  to  take  my 
chances.  Miss  Anthony  says  she  wants  to  see  a  Southern  woman  who 
wishes  to  vote,  and  I  am  going  to  stand  up  and  be  counted,  even  if  I 
bav^e  such  a  cold  that  I  can  not  talk." 

Gentlemen,  you  are  very  kind  to  hear  this  Southern  woman  who  does 
not  bring  anytbing  but  her  simple  voice,  that  she  wants  the  ballot  for 
herself  and  for  her  granddaughters,  and  she  hopes  they,  at  least,  will  live 
to  see  the  time  when  they  will  have  it  if  I  do  not.  I  thank  you,  gen- 
tlemen. 

S.  Mis.  114  2 


18 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE, 


EEMARKS  OF  MISS  ANTHONY. 

Miss  Anthony.  It  in  but  fair  for  me  to  state  that  in  this  room  there 
is  probably  at  least  one  woman  representing  each  --^tate  or  Territory  of 
this  Union.  I  think  during  the  sessions  of  the  council — we  have  been 
so  busy  that  we  have  not  had  time  to  look  it  up — but  we  have  not  a 
State  or  a  Territory  that  has  not  been  represented  in  the  meetings  du- 
ring the  past  week.  I  need  not  say  that  we  all  hope  that  this  first 
Congress  of  the  second  century  will  take  the  initiative  step  towards  se- 
curing the  enfranchisement  of  woman. 

I  want  to  say  in  conclusion  what  perhaps  I  need  not  say,  that  I  hope 
this  committee  or  the  chairman  of  it,  will  make  a  motion  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  that  shall  secure  an  order  for  the  ])rinting  of  a  good  large 
number  of  the  speeches  and  addresses  which  have  been  made  here  this 
morning.  This  convention,  this  year,  rounds  out  the  first  forty  years 
since  woman  began  to  make  a  public  demand  for  enfranchisement  in 
this  country,  and  therefore  it  is  fitting  that  your  honorable  committee 
shall  make  this  hearing  mark  this  epoch  by  thus  publishing  the  report 
of  the  proceedings.  I  wish  you  would  ask  leave  to  publish  a  hundred 
thousand  copies,  that  we  might  have  them  sent  to  every  school  district 
of  the  United  States.  But  if  you  can  not  bear  to  have  the  Government 
do  so  much  for  the  women  of  this  Kepublic  and  of  the  world,  ask  for  the 
largest  number  that  the  law  will  allow  you  to  get. 

1  thought  I  had  asked  a  representative  of  every  distant  country  to 
be  heard,  but  I  find  that  I  have  omitted  to  call  upon  Canada,  which  is 
not  distant.   I  now  present  to  you  Mrs.  Keefer,  of  Toronto. 


STATEMENT  OF  MRS.  KEEFER. 

Mrs.  Keeper.  Mr.  Chairman  and  honorable  gentlemen  of  the  com- 
mittee: I  think  that  I  am  an  American  citizen,  although  1  live  jr.st 
across  the  line,  and  as  I  stood  in  your  House  of  Eepresentatives  the 
other  day  and  watched  the  flag  over  the  head  of  the  Speaker,  I  won- 
dered to  myself  if  the  time  would  ever  come  when  the  beaver  and  maple 
leaf  would  find  a  place  somewhere  around  and  just  under  the  stars  and 
stripes.  I  am  so  glad  to  be  here  this  morning,  and  to  add  my  voice  to 
the  voices  of  your  own  women  who  have  been  ])leading  with  you  for 
the  vote.  I  do  not  ask  the  vote  to  be  extended  to  spinsters  and  widows 
only.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  ])ut  a  premium  on  unmarried  women,  al- 
though we  have  it  in  our  country.  I  ask  that  the  vote  may  be  extended 
to  all  women  as  it  is  to  all  men,  for  right  is  right,  and  you  can  not  make 
it  wrong,  and  you  can  not  make  a  part  wrong  of  a  whole  right. 

We  have  a  little  experience  in  our  country  in  regard  to  the  woman^s 
vote,  and  we  know  that  it  is  one  of  the  very  best  factors  that  enter  into 
an  election.  We  have  seen  our  council  chambers  purified  of  a  great 
many  things  that  were  there  before.  We  have  seen  cleaner,  better, 
grander,  nobler  men  put  into  our  councils  all  through  tlie  province  of 
Ontario  because  of  the  woman's  vote. 

Men  and  brethren,  you  need  the  woman's  vote  here,  just  as  much  as 
we  need  the  woman's  vote  over  there.  I  know  that  a  great  many  of 
you  have  an  idea  that  if  we  women  vote  it  will  injure  us.  i'ou  think 
that  politics  have  got  into  such  a  muddle,  have  got  so  dirty  some  way 
or  other  that  the  dirty  house  is  not  fit  for  us  to  live  in.  But  men  and 
brethren,  did  you  ever  see  a  dirty  house  that  was  fit  for  a  man  to  live 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE* 


19 


in  iC  II  w  as  uot  lit  for  a  woman,  and  did  you  ever  see  a  house  that  was 
clean  enough  for  a  man  that  was  too  dirty  for  a  woman  ?  ^ay,  further, 
did  you  ever  see  a  dirt^'  house  that  was  fit  for  a  man  to  live  in  until 
some  woman  or  other  had  got  into  it  and  cleaned  it  up  for  him?  [Ap- 
plause.] 

STATEMENT  OF  MISS  FRANCES  E.  WHLARD. 

Miss  Anthony.  The  committee  ask  to  hear  Miss  Willard,  and  I  ask 
her  to  please  come  forward. 

Gentlemen  of  the  committee,  here  stands  before  you  a  woman  who  is 
commander-in  chief  of  an  army  of  women  in  these  United  States,  who 
commands  to-day  an  army  of  250,000  women.  It  is  said  women  do  not 
want  to  vote,  but  this  woman  has  led  up  this  vast  army  to  the  ballot- 
box,  or  to  a  wish  to  get  there.  Gentlemen,  I  present  to  you  Miss  Wil- 
lard. 

Miss  Willard.  I  suppose  these  honorable  gentlemen  think  that  we 
women  want  the  earth,  when  we  only  want  half  of  it.  That  is  just  ex- 
actly where  we  stand.  We  call  their  attention  to  the  fact — I  do  not 
know  whether  it  has  been  brought  out  here  this  morning,  but  it  is  a 
fact — that  our  brethren  have  encroached  ui^on  the  sphere  of  woman. 
They  have  very  definitely  marked  out  that  sphere,  and  then  they  have 
proceeded  with  their  incursion  by  the  power  of  invention.  They  have 
taken  away  the  loom  and  the  spinning-jenny,  and  they  have  obliged 
Jenny  to  seek  her  occupation  somewhere  else  to  an  extent.  They  have 
set  even  the  tune  of  the  old  knitting-needle  to  humming  by  steam.  So 
that  we  women,  full  of  vigor  and  full  of  desire  to  be  active  and  useful 
and  to  re-act  upon  the  world  around  us,  finding  our  occupation  indus- 
trially largely  gone,  have  been  obliged  to  seek  out  a  new  territory 
and  to  pre  empt  from  the  sphere  of  our  brothers,  as  it  was  popularly 
supposed  to  be,  some  of  the  territory  that  they  have  hitherto  consid- 
ered their  own.  As  I  understand  it,  that  is  the  rationale  of  the  present 
crowding  in  of  these  women.  If  jcm  had  left  them  spinning-jennies 
and  looms  and  the  knitting-needle,  they  might  not  be  here.  But  you 
shrewd  Yankees  set  to  work  and  put  spindles  and  steam  at  your  serv- 
ice, and  lo  and  behold  we  need  more  occupation,  and  so  we  think  it 
will  be  very  desirable  indeed  that  you  should  let  us  lend  a  hand  in  the 
affairs  of  government. 

We  know  that  in  the  olden  time  when  force  was  at  the  fore,  and  had 
to  be,  women  were  at  a  discount,  but  we  accept  that  and  have  no  com- 
plaint to  make.  We  think,  however,  in  these  piping  times  of  peace" 
women  may  well  pipe  up  and  may  be  heard;  and  j'our  presence,  "grave 
and  reverend  signiors"  and  Senators,  looking  at  us  and  beaming  upon 
us  so  kindly  and  giving  your  time  to  us  this  morning,  shows  that  you 
think  just  the  same. 

We  call  you  to  remember  a  certain  incident  in  politics,  namely,  that 
when  women  had  the  vote,  as  they  had. for  a  brief  space  in  New  jersey, 
thanks  to  the  kindliness  of  the  Quakers,  who  always  thought  well  of 
women  and  marked  them  at  their  true  value,  it  was  the  decisive  vote 
of  women  in  New  Jersey  that  put  John  Quincy  Adams  in  the  great 
]]xecutive  Mansion  at  Washington.  Then  he,  like  the  true  and  loyal 
man  he  was,  stood  up  and  argued  that  women  should  have  the  right  to 
l)at  their  signature  to  petitions,  which  had  not  been  done  before.  He 
remembered  the  women  that  he  left  behind  him,  and  he  it  was  who, 
when  men  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington  said  that  if  women  put  their 
names  to  a  bit  of  paper  in  the  way  of  a  signature  to  a  petition  they 


20 


WOMAN  8UFFRAGE. 


would  lose  their  womanliness,  that  they  would  not  care  for  their  homes, 
and  that  they  would  become  strong  minded — he  it  was  who  declared 
that  it  would  not  make  them  a  bit  different,  that  they  would  still  be 
womanly  and  kind  and  motherly  and  sisterly.  The  result  was  that 
women  were  given  the  right  of  petition,  and  have  they  not  vindicated 
John  Quincy  Adams  ?  You  can  not  legislate  the  womanly  trait  into 
being. 

It  is  said  that  if  women  are  given  the  right  to  vote  it  will  prevent 
their  being  womanly.  I  know  it  is  a  sentiment  of  chivalry  in  some  good 
men  that  hinders  them  from  giving  us  the  ballot.  They  think  we  should 
not  be  what  the^^  admire  so  much ;  they  think  we  should  be  lacking  in 
womanliness  of  character,  which  we  most  certainly  wish  to  preserve; 
but  we  believe  that  history  proves  they  have  retained  that  womanliness, 
and  if  we  can  only  make  men  believe  that,  and  if  we  can  only  make 
women  believe  that,  the  ballot  will  just  come  along  sailing  in  a  shii? 
with  the  wind  beating  every  sail — the  ballot  will  come  in  the  next  ten 
years. 

I  ask  you  to  notice  here  if  the  women  who  have  been  in  this  inter- 
national council,  if  the  women  who  are  school  teachers  all  over  this 
nation,  if  the  hundreds  of  thousands  are  not  a  womanly  set  of  women. 
They  have  gone  outside  of  the  old  sphere.  We  believe  that  in  the  time 
of  peace  women  can  come  forward,  and  can,  with  peaceful  plans,  use 
weapons  that  are  grand  and  womanly,  and  that  her  thoughts,  winged 
with  hope  and  the  force  of  the  heart  given  to  them,  will  have  an  effect 
far  mightier  than  forceful  power.  For  that  reason  we  ask  you  that  that 
class  of  our  women  who,  having  a  level  head  upon  their  shoulders,  can 
be  trusted  shall  be  allowed  to  stand  at  the  ballot-box,  because  we  be- 
lieve that  at  the  ballot-box  every  person  shows  his  individuality,  and 
would  show  her  individuality.  The  majesty  or  the  meanness  of  the 
man — and  by  that  I  mean  to  include  womanhood — comes  out  more  at 
the  ballot-box  than  anywhere  else.  The  ballot  is  the  compendium  of  all 
there  is  in  civilization,  and  of  all  that  civilization  has  done  for  us.  We 
believe  that  the  mothers  who  had  the  good  sense  to  train  noble  men  like 
you  who  have  achieved  high  positions,  had  the  good  sense  to  train  your 
sisters  in  the  same  way,  and  that  it  is  a  pity  that  the  State  has  lost  that 
other  half  of  the  conservative  power  that  comes  from  a  Christian  rear- 
ing and  a  Christian  character. 

1  have  spoken  thus  on  the  principles  which  have  made  me,  a  con- 
servative woman,  devoted  to  the  idea  of  the  ballot,  and  have  made  me 
one  in  heart  with  all  these  good  and  true  suffrage  women,  though  not 
one  in  organic  community.  I  represent  before  you  the  Woman^s 
Christian  Temperance  Union  and  not  a  suffrage  society,  but  I  bring 
these  principles  to  your  sight,  and  I  ask  you,  my  brothers,  to  be  grand 
and  chivalrous  towards  us  on  this  new  departure  that  we  now  wish  to 
make. 

I  ask  you  to  remember  that  it  is  women  who  have  given  the  costliest 
hostages  to  fortune,  and  out  into  the  battle  of  life  they  have  sent  their 
best  beloved  with  snares  that  have  been  legalized  set  on  every  hand. 
From  the  arnas  that  held  him  long  the  boy  has  gone  forever,  and  he  will 
not  come  back  again  to  the  home,  and  can  not  come  back  again  into  the 
world.  Then  let  the  world  in  the  person  of  its  womanhood  go  forth  and 
make  a  home,  and  make  that  home  in  the  State  and  in  society.  By  all 
the  pains  and  danger  the  mother  has  shared,  by  the  hoars  of  patient 
watching  over  beds  where  little  children  tossed  in  fever  and  in  pain,  by 
the  incense  of  ten  thousand  prayers  wafted  to  God  from  earnest  lips,  I 
charge  you,  gentlemen,  give  women  power  to  go  forth  so  that  when  her 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


21 


son  undertakes  life's  treacherous  battle  still  let  his  mother  walk  beside 
him  weak  but  serious,  and  clad  in  the  garments  of  power.  [Applause.] 

Miss  Anthony.  The  chairman  assures  me  that  the  resolution  for  the 
printing  shall  be  passed. 

The  Ghaieman.  No,  presented. 

Miss  Anthony.  Presented.  Of  course  we  know  t«hat  whatever  the 
chairman  of  this  committee  does  present  will  be  passed.  Now,  gentle- 
men, we  are  greatly  obliged  to  you  and  1  feel  very  proud  of  all  my 
"girls"  who  have  been  brought  up  before  you  this  morning,  and  you 
may  consider  the  meeting  adjourned. 


